Sunset Eyes
by Dawnbright75.Aracalima
Summary: Brightsun thinks she has been cursed with eyes that express her feelings until a tom shows her how to love again. My last SecretClan challenge!


Sunset Eyes

Brightsun padded through the forest, scanning the undergrowth for prey. Her golden pelt slid among the sunlight the dappled the woodland floor. Behind her a band of cats chatted and and laughed as she led a patrol.

They won't talk to me, she sighed gloomily in her mind. Just because I'm different. And I never asked for my differences, it just happened. She bowed her head and blinked the eyes that made her life so difficult. She knew the orbs stuck into sockets on her face were blue, which they were most of the time. What has StarClan cursed me with? Why couldn't I just have gotten green eyes, or amber ones? No, I was given eyes that never stay the same for long.

She jumped as a warrior, Birchclaw, brushed her dragging tail. "Sorry," he muttered, ducking his head in embarrassment. His whiskers twitched and heat must've burned within his ear-tips.

"It's...alright." She barely ever spoke to anyone. The thought of having a conversation with another cat was thrilling! She turned away. But why had the light brown tom wanted to speak with me? Two popular warriors, Briarleaf and Skydapple, padded just behind her. Why not have fun flirting with them? "W-we should get back hunting," she told him softly. Then she tasted the air.

Birchclaw did the same, his small fangs glinting in the sunlight. Skydapple and Briarleaf stopped and copied them. "Do you smell that?" Briarleap breathed.

"It's..." Skydapple began.

"Fox!" Birchclaw finished with a yowl as a dog-shaped creature with a plume of a leaped through the shrubs. The cats scattered, splitting to different sides. Mind racing, Brightsun found herself running into Birchclaw.

"Sorry!" she gasped. "C'mon, we have to fight!" She bounded down toward the fox, snarling threats. She didn't look to see if the tom followed her. "Come and fight, you coward!" she hissed, lashing out an unsheathed paw. Her blow landed on the fox's black button nose. It yelped, then gathered itself and growled. It dove for her neck. It flew just a whisker-length over her. Frightened, Brightsun ducked and turned to face the fox.

Briarleaf hurled herself from a tree, landing squarely on the creature's back. "Get away from Brightsun!" Shaking wildly, it sent her flying into an oak.

Brightsun ducked in, swiping at the fox's shoulder. It was ready, and caught her paw in its jaws. She yowled, pain coursing through her veins. The fox flung her over into an awkward angle, onto the she-cat's back. She sighed as its fangs released her, and limped out of the way in time to see Birchclaw swoop in and claw the fox's side.

She lapped at her paw, the fur which still remained on it stained red with blood. She looked up and saw Skydapple and Birchclaw chasing the fox away. When he returned, Brightsun could see his injuries: a gash in one shoulder, bites down his flank, and fur was missing from his chest. He had torn a claw on one paw, and also had cuts above his eye.

"You're hurt," she murmured.

"So are you," he responded. "Getting hurt is part of being a warrior."

Brightsun dipped her head. "It is," she agreed. "Where's Briarleaf?" Her belly fluttered. The young warrior was supposed to be under her protection as leader of the patrol. She didn't like the thought that she had failed her. She shivered, and tried to get to her paws.

"Stop," Birchclaw warned. "Skydapple and I will find her. You're badly injured, so rest."

The she-cat sat gratefully. "I hope you don't mind." Look, you're talking!

He smiled. "I don't mind at all!" He ran off, tail waving behind him.

Brightsun grinned despite herself. I like that tom. He treats me like an equal. I feel like I've spoken more than I have in the last moon!

The sun seemed to drift cross the sky before Birchclaw and Skydapple returned. She saw why as they stumbled back into view. Her eyes of lake blue began to mix into a storm gray, and then darker. Her heart was weighed down by one thousand stones, and she stood awkwardly to bow her head in mourning.

"Briarleaf is dead!"

Skydapple's wail woke the Clan when they returned to camp. Birchclaw had shared some of Briarleaf's weight while also supporting Brightsun as they staggered into the clearing. Sunset held the sky. Brightsun wondered how they had started out at sunrise and gotten back so late.

Finchstar raced down Meetingrock where he announced events. His eyes frowned at the patrol. "What happened?" he asked.

Brightsun sagged the ground. Her legs felt as if they were skinny saplings upholding a canopy. "A fox attacked us," she whispered hoarsely. "She threw herself at it, and the fox flung her against a tree." She bowed her head in shame. "She tried to save me. It was my fault."

Birchclaw shook his head. "She died bravely, though much too soon."

"Let Cloudwhisker see to your wounds," Finchstar decided finally. He dragged the limp body of the young warrior into the middle of camp as the injured band of cats made their way to the medicine den. Cloudwhisker, a small white tom with one blue eye and one amber eye met them halfway with a mouthful of herbs.

"Sit," he ordered. "Who's the most badly injured?"

"Birchclaw," Brightsun said, while he himself said, "Brightsun."

The medicine-cat glanced at the two of them. Brightsun felt warmth in her ear-tips. "Treat him first," she muttered.

"Fernpaw!"

At her mentor's summoning the medicine-cat's apprentice scrambled from the den. "Yes?"

"Treat Brightsun's wounds, would you? I've got to tend to Birchclaw." The warrior lowered her eyes. Even the medicine-cat, who supposedly had no enemies, shunned her! He dumped her on his apprentice!

Fernpaw scowled. "Okay." She picked up some marigold leaves and chewed them into pulp. Then she spat them onto the stinging paw. Brightsun winced. "What, are you a kit-warrior, grimacing at even a small cut?" Fernpaw sneered. She dabbed some comfrey onto her shoulder. "I have to use the littlest bit so we don't waste precious herbs on a freak like you," she explained nastily. "Now go rest in your den and don't come out for a moon!"

Brightsun felt anger swelling in her stomach. She had never argued with a cat before, but this time she felt like the insults were too much. She gazed at Fernpaw steadily. "You think you're superior to me just because of my eyes, don't you?"

The apprentice seemed to never had heard her speak, or of she had, she had ignored her and forgotten she had the ability to do so. That was the reason for the take-aback look plastered on her face. "Um... Yeah, basically."

"That's like me thinking me your master because you have dark brown fur with unusual golden markings on your pelt," Brightsun went on. "Now treat me properly, please."

Eyes side wide, Fernpaw obeyed. Brightsun caught Birchclaw giving her a look of approval, but she pretended not to see it. I just want to be alone, she thought miserably. If I hadn't been on that patrol, Briarleaf wouldn't have died.

The first warriors of StarClan shone as Brightsun stretched her stiff legs and walked unsteadily out of the warriors' den. She would sit vigil for the fallen she-cat, though Finchstar had given them permission to rest. "I'm sorry," she whispered after she settled down beside the warrior. "You shouldn't have died today."

She felt a presence beside her. Without looking she knew it was Birchclaw. What does he want now? she thought irritably.

"It's not your fault," he told her softly. "She would've done the same for any over warrior."

"But she cares to save me!" Brightsun choked out. "No one else would've."

"I would've." His tail rested on her sobbing shoulders. "I would save you from a horde of badgers if I had to."

"Even though I have eyes that change with my feelings?" she breathed. They were still that sullen dark gray.

"I think they're unique and beautiful," he persisted. "No cat else has them which makes you special."

Special. The word made her heart glow. "Thanks." She frowned when she saw Birchclaw's fearful blink. "What?"

"Your eyes... Are red," he said carefully.

"Oh. That." She shrugged off his tail. "It happens."

"What are you feeling?" he asked gently.

"Um, I don't want to say," she confessed. "It's a little embarrassing." She rested her chin on her paws and closed her eyes. "It means I feel compassionate," she whispered. "It's only happened once before, but then they were red all the time."

Birchclaw smiled. "I remember that time. We were only kits then, and too young to care."

"Yes. It was good in those days," she agreed. "I wish it could be like that now."

"It still can be," Birchclaw offered. "I've loved you since your eyes were always the shade of sunset. Stay with me, Brightsun. Be mine."

"No one has ever love me after my eyes changed to the deep thunder gray after my father died," Brightsun murmured, not opening her eyelids. "I'm not sure I can take the pain again. You know... When you leave me."

"With love there is always pain," he whispered in her ear. She flicked him out. "Without pain there is no love. I'm going to sleep in my nest." He left after he payed his final respects to Briarleaf.

Brightsun pressed her nose into the dead warrior's fur. Under the scent of rosemary loomed the awful stench of death and fox. "I'm sorry," she sobbed again. "You were like a little sister to me, in a distant way." Then she too retired to her nest.

"You came," Birchclaw mumbled sleepily.

"Of course," she yawned. "I'm tired."

He opened eyes full of hurt. "I thought you came to be with me."

Brightsun sighed, he red eyes once again seeping into blue, the color of StarClan's tears. "Come walk with me," she said. Then she padded out of camp, turning at the entrance to see if he followed. He did, ears flattened. "What?" she asked.

"Just out of love," he teased gently.

"You know," she whispered, eyes flickering back into fire, "You aren't do bad after all. Maybe I have loved you for as long as I remember, even if I don't know you."

"I do hope that is the case." He rubbed his cheek along hers. Then he raised his face of birch brown to the stars. "I don't think it was our fault Briarleaf died."

"What?"

"It wasn't your fault. You didn't force her to rescue you. It could've been you in their ranks." He faced her. "And if it was your fault, I'm pretty sure she forgives you."

"You think?" Brightsun blinked eyes in the middle of changing from red to blur again.

"I do think," he assured her. "I know I would forgive you."

They lay down on a flat stone. "Thank you," Brightsun murmured. "For everything. For loving me, and for making me love again as well. For opening the gates to my eyes of sunset as they were before."

"You am very welcome. Your eyes are a beautiful sunset," he breathed. "The best ever."


End file.
